Willard Thornton was a Mormon resident of Grantville before and after the Ring of Fire. In 1980, while still in high schoool, Willard fell in love with his future wife Emma. The two eloped on the night of their high school graduation, correctly believing that both sets of parents would be profoundly opposed to their marriage. Emma's parents looked down on Mormonism, believing that the religion to be a cult. For Willard, to decision to immediately marry meant that he could not do his stint as an LDS missionary as his parents thought he should. The eloping couple spent on their so-called honeymoon in a strip motel in Charleston and Emma became pregnant. Unfortunately, their baby was still-born barely seven months into the pregnancy. Willard worked at the Home Center, sent Emma to college, a